Learn how to find the distance between two points by using the distance formula, which is an application of the Pythagorean theorem. We can rewrite the Pythagorean theorem as d=√((x_2-x_1)²+(y_2-y_1)²) to find the distance between any two points.

Fundamentally, a user’s GPS receiver will compute the user’s Cartesian coordinates first and then compute the latitude, longitude, and height (Torge, 2003 ). Note that the height defined in this fashion is geometrically the distance normal to the surface of the ellipse.

When outlining the coordinates of a location, the line of latitude is always given first followed by the line of longitude. Therefore, the coordinates of this location will be: 10°N latitude, 70°W longitude. The line of latitude is read as 41 degrees (41°), 24 minutes (24′), 12.2 seconds (12.2”) north.

1. Open Google Earth.
2. At the top, click Tools. Options.
3. Click 3D View. Then, under “Show Lat/Long,” choose a display format.
4. Click OK. Coordinates will be displayed in the lower right corner.

The order in which you write x- and y-coordinates in an ordered pair is very important. The x-coordinate always comes first, followed by the y-coordinate. As you can see in the coordinate grid below, the ordered pairs (3,4) and (4,3) are two different points!

x, y coordinates are respectively the horizontal and vertical addresses of any pixel or addressable point on a computer display screen. The y coordinate is a given number of pixels along the vertical axis of a display starting from the pixel (pixel 0) at the top of the screen.

XYZ Convention Positive Y-axis is north and positive X-axis is east. Z-axis is always the vertical axis and is positive upwards. Rotation follows the right-hand rule where the thumb is pointing in the positive direction along the axis of rotation and the curled fingers indicate the positive rotation direction.

Here are some tips for formatting your coordinates so they work on Google Maps:

1. Use the degree symbol instead of “d”.
2. Use periods as decimals, not commas.
3. List your latitude coordinates before longitude coordinates.
4. Check that the first number in your latitude coordinate is between -90 and 90.

Use the sight line on the top of the aiming beam to align the beam with the North Star. Use the protractor to measure the angle between the beam and the horizon (which is 90º to the plumb line). This angle is your latitude.

69 miles

Have students look at the U.S. map and find the lines running across and up and down the page. Tell students that the lines running across the page are lines of latitude, and the lines running up and down the page are lines of longitude. Latitude runs 0–90° north and south. Longitude runs 0–180° east and west.

Degrees, Minutes, Seconds (DMS) Degrees for DMS are divided into 60 minutes and then each minute is divided into 60 seconds. This is just like the hours on our clocks and goes back to the Babylonians who worked with a base 60 number system!